Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart

What happens with perhaps the world’s most deadly and effective killer starts to question what his life has been? He’s worked for ‘The Agency’ who doles out the assignments. He’s also available (via a dark web version of LinkedIn) for simple freelance assignments. He’s accumulated enough cash to avoid working for the rest of his life.

Mark (aka The Pale Horse) is good at what he does. Hand-to-hand, firearms, bombs, gas, loud, quiet, you name it. But he’s starting to have some existential thoughts about whether all the blood he’s caused to be spilled has made a difference. A mistake sends him reeling. Searches for help. And he finds it, sort of.

There are 12-step programs for all sorts of addictions – alcohol, drugs, sex, eating, et al. Amongst the small world of professional assassins exists a self-help group that helps professional killers (as opposed to opportunistic killers) get out of the life. Mark manages to get in a group. Even has his 6-month chip.

When you’re as good as The Pale Horse, a lot of people have Mark at their top of their 'needs to be dead' list. While in recovery, Mark manages to survive and near-fatal assault. Helped by Astrid (a former spec ops medic who is on-call to the assassin community), he recovers and now has to struggle of his internal battles between The Pale Horse’s obsession with revenge and Mark’s progress toward his own form of sobriety.

Finding the person who nearly killed him is a long chase from NYC to Singapore to London and back to NYC. Mark and Astrid are gaining, but always seem to be a step behind. And, he's really not sure what he'll do if/when he finds the guy.

I started reading this as a break in the overwhelming task of reading The Year of the Locust, that 800-page beast we’ve reviewed here. As such, I was going back and forth not developing any real cohesion. Once some time opened, I managed to devote my full attention.

This book is a clever take on the killer-turned good guy story. The author manages to balance the struggle between the yin (Mark) and yang (The Pale Horse) of what Mark must deal with. Lots of psychological issues bubble up to help and hurt Mark’s tortured path to redemption. Like I said. An interesting take on the mystery/thriller genre that is our focus here and several surprises. Worth your time. This is Hart's 7th book; previous books have earned notable praise and interest from Hollywood.

In the acknowledgements, Hart mentions an exec at Amblin Entertainment has optioned this book. Movie or streaming? Who knows. Amblin (a Spielberg company) hasn’t had too many misses. But it’ll be a while before we know more.

Available 11 June 2024.

Thanks to the good folks at NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy.

ECD